Thursday, July 31, 2014

On Wednesday, July 23 we
embarked on a three-day wilderness trail out of Kruger’s Pretorius Kop
camp.After an hour’s drive along with
the other six guests, we arrived at our home for the next three days, a camp
site situated on a small river with four tents and a common area for dining, as
well as a kitchen and tents for our guides.

Day 1

Rifle in hand and in a
slightly militaristic tone, Raymond – one of our two guides – explained the
trail rules.“If I say move right, you
move right, understood?”And for good
reason; not five minutes into our walk, six white rhinos slowly trotted into
view towards us, abruptly interrupting our predetermined path.

As directed, we quickly scrambled up a rock
where we could safely admire the rhinos as well as a panoramic view of the surrounding
bush.The rest of the walk was more
predictable, including sightings of elephants, impala, and kudus from a safe
distance.

Following a 3-hour hike,
we stopped about thirty minutes away from our return to camp and lunch, where Saul
– our second guide – enthusiastically pointed out a large herd of buffalo in
the distance – “about 3 km away,” he estimates.“Let’s take a vote, who wants to hike over there?” he jokes.Due to the unanimous response, he (less
enthusiastically) concedes, “OK, but we shoot straight there and back.No stopping – does everyone have water?”After a double-time one hour hike straight
out (straight meaning no stops, not a straight line, as we were always
following meandering animal paths rather than fixed hiking trails), we were
treated to the close-up site of a massive herd of buffalo, who seemed to be
just as intrigued with us as we were by them.

Day 2

Once again, our hike
started promptly at 6:30 am.A less
exciting day overall: only some baboons and a herd of wildebeests.The sound of a few lion roars in the distance
set our path for the day, but the rangers were unable to find the pride’s
tracks and the roars eventual dwindled, so that we were unsuccessful at finding
the cat.

About thirty minutes away
from camp we noticed a bull elephant on our left.This was not a problem at all until two
rhinos came into view on our right.The
rhinos quickly changed direction and aimed straight at us.Fortunately, as Raymond vehemently directed
us to get closer together and stand behind a bush, the rhinos turned
around.Heart racing, we completed our
walk for the day, always on the lookout for rhinos.

Day 3

Our last day, we were
allowed to “sleep in” until 6 am before a hearty breakfast and drive back to
Pretorius Kop.Unfortunately, still no
leopard sightings on our final game drive, but we did see more rhinos!Overall, it was an amazing three days, with
extremely capable guides and a great group of cohorts on our trail (one South
African couple, a British university student and a German family).

Eightdays and nights spent in South Africa’s Kruger
National Park, (or “the Kruger” as South Africans seem to call it). Kruger is the country’s largest park, covering
amazingly varied terrain and climates and including a vast array of different
animals. In just one day, seeing
elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, and other animals became second nature.

Six hundred forty eightkilometers at an average speed of twenty
fivekm/hr: In Kruger,
visitors can drive themselves on safari, just as long as they don’t get out of
the car (due to the danger of wild animals). We spent most of the trip driving
ourselves from one animal sighting to another, with binoculars and camera
always at the ready.

Three rest camps: South Africa has an amazingly-organized
system of overnight rest camps, ranging from bare bones camp sites to more
elaborate camps like small towns.The
last camp we stayed in has capacity for one thousandpeople each night.At the
Satara rest camp, situated on vast plains favored by lions and their prey, we
could hear lions roaring at night.The
view from our rondavel (bungalow) at
our favorite (and smaller) camp, Olifants, is below:

Olifants is situated on a
large river, where you can hear hippos grunting throughout the night.

Eightpicnic stops at what are apparently the world’s
most dangerous picnic sites.

One three-night wilderness trail:Stay tuned for our next post, detailing our
adventures hiking in the South African bush and living in a safari tent without
electricity for three days.

Eight 5:30 amwake up calls: Animals wake up early and sleep in
the middle of the day, so it’s best to rise and shine at dawn to get the best
sightings.We were thankful every
morning that we brought along our French press all the way to Africa (kudos to
Cherryl Kachenmeister for bringing hers on several girl scout camp outs and
giving Stephanie the idea).

Eight 5:30 pm gate closings:If you’re not back by then, tough luck – you get to sleep outdoors with the
hyenas and pay a fine.

Eight 9 pm(or earlier) bedtimes:Waking up at 5:30 every day is exhausting!

Twobags of charcoal for nightly braais outdoors.

Two dozenbeers, seven
hundred mL of Scotch and threebottles of wine consumed as
“sundowners” and to go with our braais.

One thousand elevenphotos taken by Giorgio: Just think how many there
would have been if he were 100% Japanese!

Twoprofessional game drives:We took a few breaks from our DIY safari to
go on professional game drives run by the park.

Tenminutes wasted on a professional game drive to see
a lilac-breasted roller at the request of another tourist – seriously, who
cares that much about birds?

Fouroffive of the “Big Five”
sighted:Hopefully we’ll see leopards
soon!

Approximately thirtyelephantscrossing the road within feet of our SUV.

Onemonkeyattempting
to steal a bottle of wine from our kitchen, one monkey attempting to
steal our daypacks and two monkeys outsmarting Giorgio to
steal his sugar.

Fifty+“Zazu Birds”(hornbills)
and twenty+ “Pumbaas” (warthogs).One relatively minor wildebeest
stampede.Three hyenas found in an “elephant graveyard” (or by the side
of the road).

Still not seen - a meerkat, followed by a warthog, followed by a lion, crossing a log, swaying their heads, singing Hakuna Matata. Disney: Stop lying to us!

Onevery rare Nyala
(which is, as far as we can tell, the animal from Princess Mononoke) and one
herd of the endangered sable antelope.

Tworealistic possibilities of being trampled by an
angry hippo (the animal that causes the most fatalities in Africa other than
the mosquito) plus dozens of hungry hungry hippos.

Tencrocodiles that did absolutely nothing other than
lay in the sand.

One hundred+“Lion Sightings” that were really rocks.

One hundred+“Rock Sightings” that were really hippos.

Fiveactual lion sightings.

Zeroleopard sightings.

Forty+ sightings of endangered white rhinos, including two
instances of almost being trampled by one crush of rhinos (see our post
regarding the Wilderness Trail for details).

PSA: Rhinos are highly endangered due to poaching in the national
parks.Poaching is at record levels,
with three
hundred seventy poached from Kruger so far this year (that’s more than two
per day).

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Following a guided boat tour of the lakes in Kosi Bay, we headed out on our own, taking our trusty Nissan to tackle the drive to Kosi Mouth where the lakes empty into the Indian Ocean. Armed only with vague and conflicting directions from other blogs, and knowing that if we reached Mozambique we'd gone too far, we embarked on the 8 km drive. By sheer luck we managed to find the unsigned turnoff, only to be denied access to the park because we had not acquired the entry permit at the seemingly nonexistent tourist office. We stopped at a nearby lodge, where a random employee was happy to sell us the permit at twice the price. Permit in hand, we headed through the gate and began our (Giorgio's) 4x4 challenge.

Both Giorgio and our Nissan handled the challenge admirably until we reached the bottom of the hill, where the deep sand defeated us. Some friendly locals were happy to help dig us out and push the car for a small tip. We were rewarded by finally reaching the Indian Ocean - a first for both of us.

The adventure-filled drive convinced us to take the highway rather than the scenic 4x4 route to St. Lucia (tomorrow's destination).

We are currently enjoying much needed sundowners on the deck by the lake, with the added bonus that the quinine in the tonic water should help with any malaria.

Lake kuNhlange: One of the three lakes that feed into the Indian Ocean in Kosi Bay. This country doesn't cease to amaze us. But we may never get internet so the wait continues for more comprehensive posts.

About Us

Gio's Description: We are citizens of the world!
Steph's Description: Follow our newlywed adventures from NYC to Africa to SE Asia and finally, to Peru! (With a few stops for weddings along the way.) All adventures planned and documented by Steph, photographed by Gio. As you will probably notice, lots of our adventures involve ponies, seeing wild animals and/or drinking wine. Enjoy!
#stephandgio